One of Coventry’s top cops says he is determined to crush organised crime in the city.

Operation Blue Steel was launched in 2014 to help bring gangs who rely on drugs, guns and robbing shops and homes to justice.

The five-year plan has already seen some success with seven gang members, including five from Coventry, being jailed earlier this month for a total of more than 40 years after evidence was found linking them to guns, ammunition and stolen luxury cars.

However, Detective Chief Inspector Warren Little, from Coventry Police, is not prepared to sit on his laurels and wants to give more of the city’s criminals their “just desserts”.

Det Chief Insp Little said: “As Coventry is a modern city it suffers from organised crime and Operation Blue Steel is our response to that.

“We are trying to get the prosecution of those organised criminals by any means, through ourselves and also the likes of the city council, the Department for Work and Pensions, HMRC and others.

“When we are carrying out warrants we might not find the drugs or guns there and then, but we might find intelligence to show where these people might have got their TVs and cars and big holidays from, which can seem to be behind their means. So where did they get them from?

“We’ve had some great success doing that and we are taking out the people in the higher echelons of these gangs and also those lower down.

“It’s always a success for the community if someone sees something that is wrong and they are having to deal with intimidation on the streets, and we can get the right result which means these people get their just desserts.”

One of the areas police have focused on has been theft of high-end cars - and in December Shane Mullen and Gez Bennett were jailed for a total of nine years last month after they were convicted of conspiracy to rob.

When the police do see criminals put behind bars, the celebrations are short-lived as they immediately have to turn their attention to the next batch of gangsters coming through the ranks.

And it is slowing down, or even stopping, this conveyor belt of people willing to fill the void that is one of Det Chief Insp Little’s main priorities.

“Hardened criminals are already part of a life of crime,” he said, “but there are other people who can be siblings, relatives or people who live in the same street who might be impressed by the respect these people have in their community or the money that they have.

“There is no quick fix at all, but by working with families and groups in the community we can hopefully help those who could be drawn in to that life.”

The public’s input is also one of the police’s strongest weapons when it comes to finding those involved in organised crime and eventually bringing them to justice.

Det Chief Insp Little said: “A key element is people in the community knowing what is going on and it is only right that the hard-working people of Coventry who earn a day’s crust who let us know this intelligence, by whatever means that is, know we are doing something about it.

“Every success that we have had can be attributed to the intelligence from the community at some point.

“We can’t do it on our own and encourage people to contact us or other authorities with something they notice, no matter how small they think it is.

“It may not see us go straight in with a warrant the next day but it will go in to our system, we can track it and it can help us build up that intelligence.”